Tom Douglas once hosted a fundraiser with America's future 44th president, but the renowned restauranteur appeared tentative as he rose Tuesday morning to talk about parking rates before the Seattle City Council's transportation committee.

"I am not a person who talks about taxes very well," said Douglas. But he does know what could be taxing to a Belltown business.

Belltown is one of the neighborhoods where the Emerald City is extending street parking hours to 8 p.m. The others are a virtual map of where we go to eat out: Downtown, the International District, Pike-Pine, Pioneer Square, Capitol Hill, the U District and Uptown.

Instead of heading to one of his restaurants, argued Douglas, patrons will be lured to "eat in Ballard or go for a hot night in Bellevue."

"You can cut our legs out from under us by making it unaffordable to be there," Douglas added.

"We say in our business, 'You make friends at lunch and money at dinner,'" Rowe added. "(Parking) will impact our profit. If profit is impacted, it impedes our ability to grow our business."

Seattle city fathers (and mothers) should listen to these people.

The Seattle Department of Transportation finessed and modified its original proposal, and made lower rates in some neighborhoods. Still, the parking tariff is going up from $2.50 to $4 an hour in the commercial core, where Consolidated does business, and on First Hill ($2 to $4), Capitol Hill ($2 to $3) and Pioneer Square ($2.50 to $3.50).

With tolls on the state Route 520 bridge and the inevitable disruption of the upcoming seawall replacement, the ground is shaking beneath Seattle's hospitality industry -- appropriately, 10 years after the Nisqually Earthquake.

What should the city's response be? "Give people reasons to come and enjoy this city, not stay away," urged Travis Rosenthal, whose Tango at Pike & Boren is in a neighborhood that will be zapped on both rates and hours.

Seattle has, in its midst, a highly influential non-merchant class: transportation authoritarians. They are driven by the fervent belief that street parking is too cheap (and should be discouraged) and that drivers hence are "subsidized."

They have a point, to a point. A Metro bus is short on ambiance, but the old No. 2 will get you from Madrona or Queen Anne Hill into town to meet friends for a weekend movie and dinner at Pacific Place. An Eastside friend can zip into town on the Sound Transit express from Redmond.

But what if you're meeting up after work? In places where Douglas, Rosenthal and Rowe do business, the early evening tariff will add $7 or $8 to the cost of dinner or beers with friends.

Transportation authoritarians do not make good listeners. They are of a we-know-what's-best-for-you mindset. (Want proof? Punch up the PubliCola website for the humorless, hectoring putdown that is a likely reaction to this column.)

But the City Council needs to lend an ear. Higher costs and disruption could trigger the business equivalent of a "perfect storm," damaging both people's livelihoods and the city's recovery from the Great Recession.

Seattle City Councilman Tom Rasmussen, chair of the transportation committee, seemed to get the message. "It's really important to determine effects not just on city revenue, but the impact on business," he said later.

We all know examples of downtowns that go dark after hours. Seattle and (especially) Portland have, in recent years, been counterexamples. The two cities regularly make "Top 20" lists of places in America to be young, or single, or to find love.